


Touch Me

by krasnoe_solnishko



Category: Maleficent (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family Feels, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:28:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25578070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krasnoe_solnishko/pseuds/krasnoe_solnishko
Summary: At the crack of dawn she needs just a bit of reassurance.
Relationships: Diaval/Maleficent (Disney)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	Touch Me

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to Jeslieness for beta-reading 😘. At the end of the day, if no one ships these two any more I will write for you alone.

"Touch me."

Diaval looked up, startled.

"Mistress?"

She sighed, stood up and came to the windows. Outside the festivities were still going on, though it was almost dawn. Laughter and music broke the solemnity of the night, and the sounds of dancing reached even Maleficent's windows high up the tower. Insatiable humans.

She held herself tight with both arms as if trying to keep warm in a chilly night.

"The day is over."

"Not yet. Still, a remarkable day," Diaval noted cautiously.

"A day of no return." Maleficent gave him a sharp look over her shoulder. "I've lost her for good."

Diaval leaned on the post of the large bed.

"Surely you've not. You are being unnecessarily pessimistic, Mistress."

"I've lost her," she cut him off stubbornly. "Yes, I have lost her to love or whatever, and she seems happy for now," she bit her lip. "Somehow it doesn't lessen the loss. It makes it even more final."

Diaval let his lips form a small smile.

"The wedding makes you more dramatic than ever, Mistress."

She turned to him, her skin almost deathly pale in the moon light. Her impressive face was an odd mixture of furious, ashamed and disappointed.

"You dare mock me now? _You_?"

Diaval straightened at once, her obvious distress clearing all the traces of teasing from his face.

"Never."

"Do you find me... ridiculous?"

He rapidly shook his head.

"I do not."

"Oh but you should," Maleficent spit out. "An old fool, that's who I am, envious of a young boy for getting what I always considered a gift not wanted."

"I heard..." he mumbled trying to find the right words to appease her in this touchy state, "it's only natural to feel a bit lost when things are about to change, Mistress. Or so they say," he added softly. "I just wish to point out that her marrying doesn't imply your losing her. It's just a different kind of love. She is still our... your little Beastie. Nothing will change it."

"You are a fool yourself, Diaval, if you do not see all the ways in which everything has changed." Maleficent came to the bed he was standing by and sat down heavily. "It's not just about love. It's about the end. The end of the world as I knew it, the only world that made any kind of a sense to me. I know I should be content for isn't it the best of all possible ends? Two kingdoms united, our enemies incapacitated, my people found and me, avenged and more powerful than ever? I. Don't. Feel. Content. I feel..." she gazed ahead of herself unseeingly, "empty."

Diaval shifted from one foot to another, feeling as awkward as ever and utterly unsuited to the task. Insufficient that's what he was.

Maleficent breathed out sharply and closed her eyes. Her profile was stark against the moonlit sky, lips pursed and slightly trembling with all of the tension that filled her. Like a wounded deer... So grand and so fragile at the same time. He wanted to put his wings around her hard body, pass his beak through her tightly pulled up hair, coo at her like those stupid dove-creatures did. If only she had been a she-raven, he would know what to do. But this useless human body, it knew only craves and urges, and incomprehensible needs he had to address daily. No comfort to bring or to share.

"Sometimes I think he did more than just have taken my wings. He broke something inside of me. Irrevocably."

Diaval knew who she was talking about. His hands clenched by his sides.

"Or is it that I am just not made for peace? For I feel no peace inside, Diaval. Only devastation. And loneliness. More so than ever." She put her hand on her side right over the place where her mutinous heart was beating wildly inside. She swallowed visibly. "It hurts."

Diaval felt deeply moved. He couldn't understand her pain, not fully, as so often he had been able to understand neither her way of thinking nor why she tended to complicate what had seemed quite simple to him. But understand her he didn't have to. The reasons hardly mattered.

She was in pain. She needed him.

"I am here for you, Mistress," he said, sliding down on his knees beside the bed. "Make any use of me."

She turned her head to him and their eyes met.

"Touch me."

And he did.


End file.
